


Ribbons

by convenience



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, No mpreg, Pregnancy, Wow! Tommy has a heart!, but it is Ada I promise, lots of family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21607051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/convenience/pseuds/convenience
Summary: Ada knows Tommy is sinking.
Relationships: Ada Shelby & Tommy Shelby
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48
Collections: Peaky Blinders Exchange Round Two: Season 5 Edition





	Ribbons

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Veneredirimmel (Smilla)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smilla/gifts).



Through their life, Ada and Tommy had naturally been extremely close - they’d do everything together and Tommy had a knack for braiding hair that none of the other brothers did. Mostly due to the horses when he’d sell them off for the farmer he was lucky enough to be employed by, but he’d practice in secret when he had downtime, sneaking off to see the horses and braiding intricate patterns into their manes.

He’d always surprise Ada with a new way, a new braid, scraps of ribbons from when he’d tied the horses’ hair up in it’s braid. 

That was before, though, before the war, before there weren’t any horses in the stable for Tommy to look after. They, too, had been shipped off. Ada often wondered how they hadn’t gone extinct, then quickly realised that horses existed in other places of the world.

When they went to pick the boys up from the station, Ada was hoisted into the air first by Tommy, her spindly legs and arms wrapping around his equally lithe frame. He wrapped his arms around her and carried her all the way home, only asking her later why her long brown hair had been cut to her shoulders and rather shabbily too, though Tommy didn’t comment on that part.

Ada had quietly admitted that there had been an outbreak of nits in her school and she kept bringing them home, partly because she couldn’t braid it, partly because she was an extremely pleasant child who played with all the other children even if she knew they had nits. She cried in his arms, apologising profusely.

That night, Ada sat on the kitchen table as he took the scissors to her hair, brush in hand and cut her hair into a bob that he had seen on a young french girl whilst he was away. He told her stories, some a little better than they actually were, and he felt more like himself than he had for a long time.

A few decades later and Ada has invited Tommy over - she’s heavily pregnant and can tell that he’s close to tipping over the edge, whatever that edge is and however he hasn’t already tipped over it. A night of bitching was due and she couldn’t wash her own hair or cut it comfortably. She hoped it would would get him to breathe a little, maybe coerce him into eating something fatty and carb-y.

Once he was let in, Ada could tell just how in need of a breather he was - he was stiff, robotic in the way that he hung his coat and hat. It was painful to watch, like a broken toy that once danced but now just kinda… spun.

“C’mon, Tom. The fire’s lit, it’s warm as anything.” Ada called to him in the doorway, wearing pyjamas and a thin wrap to keep her arms warm. “Would you mind washing my hair for me later? I can’t do it at this point, and it’s getting long,”

“Longer than mine, Ade, that’s for sure.” He muttered as he walked into the lounge, settling onto the sofa. 

It took about half an hour to get him to loosen up, which was almost record time for Tommy The Stone Wall. They were settled by the fire, Ada with a large pillow behind her back as she leant back on an armchair, Tommy leaning back on his elbows as he watched the fire, whiskey on his right.

“Do you remember when I used to braid your hair? With the ribbons?” Tommy asked, looking over at her. His eyes were strikingly blue, even in the fire.

“I’ve still got them all, of course I remember.” Ada told him with a roll of her eyes, a soft smile on her lips. “Saving them for this one when she eventually comes,”

“You kept them?” Tommy asked, confused and surprised. He knew she’d kept them in her youth, in a tiny ring box she had found. 

“They outgrew the ring box, but yeah.” She nodded, closing her eyes as she lay her head back on the seat of the armchair she was leaning against. “Of course I have.”

There was a long silence where Tommy took a long sip of whiskey. 

“I didn’t mean it, you know.” He admitted quietly, blue eyes glassy and watery. “Everything I touch turns to shit, I can’t hurt you and the baby, or Karl for that matter.”

“Tommy, you are my brother,” Ada sighed, her head held straight now. “You will hurt her more by not being her life than you will by being in it, no matter what happens. She needs to know that she has a family around her. A good family. Me, you, Arthur, Finn, Poll.”

“Apart from her, Tom, I need you. You’re my brother, I can’t do all of this shit without you.” She admitted, shaking her head. “Mostly, I can’t tie my hair. You’re also good to talk to, I guess.”

Tommy laughed for the first time that night, giving her calf a gentle swat. “Cheeky. Want me to run you a small tub and I’ll wash your hair? Looks greasy from here.”

“Dickhead. Yes, please.” Ada smiled, watching him get up with more life than she had seen him earlier.


End file.
